Fig. 5
From: Scent detection of Brucella abortus by African giant pouched rats (Cricetomys ansorgei)
Diagram illustrating the sequence of experiments in which all rats participated. The + indicates target samples for which rats were reinforced for indicating while the – denotes non-target samples. Experiment 1 trained rats to identify the scent of Brucella culture in agar then to discriminate this from irrelevant E. Coli culture in the same media. In Experiment 2, younger Brucella culture was presented to the rats to determine to what extent the odor profile it emitted remained recognizable. To control for any influence of novelty on detection behavior, non-target blood agar media was also introduced. Finally, in Experiment 3, Brucella-positive and negative culture solutions were spiked into stool samples collected from animals that had screened negative for brucellosis